Key 14 - Radiate: Michigan Agile Philosophy (MAP) Project Key

14. Radiate

Humans have been radiating information for a long time. I mean, who really knows what some of those cave man drawings really mean. It could be that Mrs. Cave Man/Woman had a shopping or honey-do list scrawled on the wall. When Mr. Cave Woman/Man finished an item he/she scratched it off with the tooth of a saber toothed tiger. The whole family including Baby Cave Girl or Boy knew exactly what was done and what still needed to be done. I’m sure it happened just like that.

First, Radiate is just a fancy way of saying display. Show. Keep out in the open. Make transparent. We want teams to make their work visible. Why? Well, there are a couple reasons. For one, it helps the team. When people on your team know what you’re working on, they can plan their work better. They can make sure they can budget time to help others if they are working on stories that they can pair on. It helps the team get a sense of what work is left. They can see a list of stories, see stuff get moved and see progress.

By Radiating your work you get the added benefit of team members sharing experiences. For example, imagine you are at your stand up meeting one morning. Each person on the team walks over to the board/wall/TV/monitor or wherever you are radiating your project information. One by one the team members point to the story they worked on last, the story they are going to work on, and if there are any impediments/blockers that are keeping them from getting their work done. After “Brock” gives his update, “Lee” notices that the story Brock is going to work on is similar to a story he had done the previous week. “Brock,” Lee says, “I can help you with that story if you want. I have a configuration file that will make it easy to complete your story.”

Another advantage of Radiating the team’s work is it gives the Product Owner a visual representation of how much work is left and the order the work will be completed according to their priorities. By seeing the work it helps them plan. If the Product Owner needs to change a priority, they can see the work in one place and make adjustments. If nothing else, by radiating the work, it invites discussions that may not have happened naturally.

Finally, by radiating information such as a burn up or burn down chart, management can get a sense of when the work is going to be completed so that they can plan the next project for the team. Radiating work is not about “Big Brother” keeping an eye on employees. It’s not about using it as a weapon to beat people down. It’s not a tool for managers to crack the whip so that the team moves “faster.” In fact, it can be helpful to limit the pile of work. How many times have you had a manager come up to you and say I need you to do X? When your work is transparent you can point to the work you have in your backlog and say, I could do X, but this is the work that I currently have and it will affect what the team has committed to complete. That usually works.

Radiating information isn’t about a tool. You can use cards on a wall, a white board, google spreadsheets, or another online tool. Any way where you can show your work. Crayons and paper could work. It’s really just about sharing information.